“Bible places: the land of Nod”
Genesis 4:16
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus.
Back in December of 1863, author Edward Hale published a short story called, The Man without a Country.
The story begins as a United States Army Lieutenant named Philip Nolan develops a friendship with Vice-President Aaron Burr. But when Burr is tried for treason, Nolan is tried as an accomplice. And as he stood trial and gave his testimony, he suddenly and angrily shouted, “I wish I may never hear of the United States again!”
And rather shocked at his bold announcement, when the judge convicted him, he icily granted his wish. He ordered him to spend the rest of his life on a United States Navy warship, in exile, with no right whatsoever to ever set foot on U.S. soil. And he ordered that no one should even speak to him of his country again.
And sure enough, just as the judge ordered, Nolan spent the rest of his life in exile, being moved from ship to ship, a prisoner of the high seas, never allowed to return to the United States again.
But as the years passed, he slowly and painfully learned the true worth of his country, and missed it, he said, “more than his friends or family, more than music, love, and nature.”
And one day, as he was being transferred to yet another ship, he begged a young sailor to never make the same mistake. He said: “Remember, boy, that behind all these men...behind officers and government, and people even, there is the Country herself, your Country, and that you belong to her as you belong to your own mother. Stand by her, boy, as you would stand by your mother!”
When he died, he penned his own epitaph. It said: “In memory of Philip Nolan, Lieutenant in the Army of the United States. He loved his country as no other man has loved her; but no man deserved less at her hands.”
The book of Genesis tells of a man just like that, the first man who was ever born, a man named Cain.
Turn with me in your Bible to page 4, as I read the words of our text. I’ll start at Genesis chapter 4, verse 1: “Now Adam knew Eve his wife and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, ‘I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.’ And again, she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of the sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground.”
Now I’d like you to clear your mind for just a moment, and think back to how it all must have been. Just as soon as God created Adam and Eve and placed them in the Garden of Eden, everything was perfect, how it should have been. But just as soon as they ate from the tree in the center of the Garden, God cursed the ground because of them, drove them out of the Garden, and sent cherubim to guard the way to the tree of life.
Yet into that sinful, fallen, divinely-cursed world, came children--first, one named Cain, and another named Abel.
Now let me ask--what would you do if you were Adam and Eve? I’ll bet you’d sit down with them, day after day, and night after night, and tell them how beautiful it all once had been--about the Garden with its fruits and trees and flowers of all kinds, about the serpent, about the fruit and the fall, and about the angels that guarded the way.
And time after time, you’d plead with them to never believe even one of Satan’s lies, but put their hope and trust in God.
No one could have talked about sin and grace more deeply or more clearly than Adam and Eve.
And in that place of sin and grace, came worship and sacrifice. Verse 3 tells us what happened next: “In the course of time, Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering He had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell.”
So what’s going on? The problem really wasn’t the offering. It’s not that God accepted Abel’s sacrifice because it was an animal, and rejected Cain’s sacrifice because it was grain. God loves the gifts of farmers and ranchers just the same.
The problem, the difference, was in the heart.
You see, when Abel brought his sacrifice, the Bible says it was “the firstborn of his flock” and “their fat portions.” In other words, Abel brought the choicest, the best, what cost him the most. Cain, on the other hand, brought the second-best, the leftovers.
And when Cain saw that God “had no regard” for his offering, what did he do? The Bible says he became angry, and his face fell.
And there we find a first lesson from this text. You see, what Cain should have done was repent and seek to make his heart right with God. He should have been broken, heartbroken, that God refused to accept his sacrifice. Instead, the Bible says he became angry, depressed, dejected.
And sometimes, that’s just how it is with us, for when God says “no” to us, what do we do? We turn on Him, and become angry with Him, when we should come in sorrow, repentance, and prayer.
Even more, what did Cain do to his brother Abel? Verse 8: “Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him.”
And there’s a second lesson we can learn from this text. It’s been said that, just like Cain, the world hates true believers. They hate us because of our narrowness, our goodness, and our love for God. And so they become angry not only at us, but God too.
As one author put it: “Our world is essentially the society of Cain--it hates the truth, it hates the people of the truth, and it hates the God of the truth. And it works feverishly and angrily to obliterate the God of the Bible and those who proclaim the Bible.”
And if all that Cain did wasn’t bad enough, then came arrogance and deceit. Verse 9: “Then the Lord said to Cain, ‘Where is Abel your brother?’ He said, ‘I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?’ And the Lord said, ‘What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to Me from the ground. And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you work the ground, it shall no longer yield to you its strength. You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.’”
Then strangely, ironically, the murderer is afraid to be murdered himself! Verse 13: “Cain said to the Lord, ‘My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, You have driven me today away from the ground, and from Your face I shall be hidden. I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.”
Can you notice something for me? Notice that all Cain cared about was himself. There was no fear of God, no regret for the loss of an innocent life, no sorrow for sin, and not even a thought for his parents who had already lost one son through murder, and now would lose one more through exile. All he cared about was himself.
Yet in spite of Cain’s great sin, God’s grace was greater still. So He said in verse 15: “‘Not so! If anyone kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.’ And the Lord put a mark on Cain, lest any who found him should attack him.”
Then verse 16: “Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.”
“In the land of Nod, east of Eden,” it said.
Where’s that? There’s no way we can know for sure. But as Adam and Eve lived far from the Garden, Cain lived farther still--farther from Eden, farther from Paradise, farther from the plan and the will of God.
Have you ever been in a rowboat on a good-sized lake? You’re not far from shore, so you know it won’t take long to row back. The sun is hot, and it feels good beating down on you, so you close your eyes, and fall asleep.
About an hour later, you wake up and you look around to see where you are. And to your surprise, you’ve drifted out to the middle of the lake. You didn’t mean to. But now you know it’ll take a lot of rowing, because it’s a long way back home.
That’s just how it is in our Christian lives. Little by little, we slowly drift away. Less time with God today means even less time with Him tomorrow. And before we even know what happened, we’ve moved to the land of Nod, to a life apart from Him.
Just a couple of years ago, back in 2016, the director of Temple University’s art gallery, Robert Blackson, was walking through an old, abandoned school in Philadelphia. And as he passed by the gym, he noticed a group of old, broken-down pianos all huddled in the middle. That’s when he thought to himself, “If there are this many broken instruments in this room alone, how many more could there be?”
So he contacted the school district’s music teachers, and began to collect their broken instruments. Within a few short months, he collected more than a thousand instruments all desperately in need of repair.
And that’s when a musician and composer named David Lang offered to help. So in December of this past year, he gathered together four hundred musicians, ranging from a nine-year-old cellist, to an 82-year-old oboist, from amateur to professional.
And when they came, they brought their broken instruments with them--a trumpet held together with blue painter’s tape, a violin with no A-string, and a bow that had lost most of its hair. And together they played his newly-written song: “Symphony for a Broken Orchestra.”
In certain ways, every one of us is broken and is badly in need of repair. Yet by the grace of God, each of us adds a voice, and produces a beautiful song under our Director’s hand.
One more thing. Though Cain and Abel were real people who once walked the earth, in a way they represent all of humanity, standing at the headwaters of the human race. And all those who have ever lived since then are either standing with Cain in unbelief or with Abel in faith.
And they’re mixed. “Cainites” and “Abelites” live together, work together, eat together, study together, and even sleep side-by-side in the same bed.
And while Abel represents those who come to God by faith in Jesus, Cain stands for those who come to God on their own and are rejected.
So who can tell the difference? Only God can, because He searches the heart.
So we give thanks to God for the second Adam, Jesus, through whom we have forgiveness of sin.
As Edward Caswall once wrote: “Abel’s blood for vengeance pleaded to the skies; but the blood of Jesus for our pardon cries.”
We thank You, dear Jesus, for the lessons we must learn from Cain and Abel. Help us to leave the land of Nod and find our hope and rest in You. This we ask in Your name. Amen